Mahwah man charged with threatening cops, DWI after chase

HO-HO-KUS — A Mahwah man led police on a chase that ended in a standoff with him threatening to shoot officers with a gun he said was tucked in his waistband, authorities said.

Ho-Ho-Kus Police Sergeant Michael LaCroix clocked a vehicle traveling more than 80 mph on Route 17 south at 3 a.m. Monday. LaCroix pursued the vehicle, driven by Jabari Dickson, 20, with his lights and siren activated and eventually pulled it over near Ridgewood Avenue, police said.

When LaCroix got out of his patrol car to approach the vehicle, Dickson allegedly sped off onto the Garden State Parkway South. Dickson veered off the right side of the parkway, striking a guardrail and coming to a stop. He then got out of the car and pointed his hands at LaCroix, “as if to suggest he had a gun,” Ho-Ho-Kus Police Chief John Wanamaker said Tuesday.

Dickson then jumped over the guardrail and yelled to LaCroix and officers from Paramus and the New Jersey State Police who arrived on the scene that he had a gun and was going to use it to kill all the police that were there, Wanamaker said. He refused to show his hands and told police numerous times he had a gun in his waistband, the chief said.

Dickson was subdued, handcuffed and arrested after a brief standoff. No one was injured, according to the chief.

Authorities later discovered Dickson never had a weapon. He was transported to Bergen Regional Medical Center and will be held in Bergen County Jail in lieu of $30,000 bail on charges of eluding police, resisting arrest, terroristic threats, driving while intoxicated and reckless driving.

Dickson is believed to have been under the influence of drugs and/or alcohol, Wanamaker said.